Talk:1186: Bumblebees

Amazing that this urban legend is still going. I seem to remember reading that the aerodynamicist who came to this conclusion sobered up and withdrew his comments within a day or two, 80 years ago. DD (talk) 09:22, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

In Richard Hammonds Invisible Worlds (Great Series) they shows slow motion footage of a bee's flight through smoke, revealing that the be TWISTS ITS WINGS in order to swing downwards twice in one flap of its wings, doubling its lift and removing the up-flaps negative lift. Here is the link, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p007vs8p.220.255.1.50 10:37, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

I also saw this comic as a reference to the movie "A Bee Movie" where Jerry Seinfeld's bee character is helping the human land the plane. I realize the human is actually flying the plane in that situation, but the bees were helping her. -- User:Mattsinc (talk) 12:31, 16 March 2013 (UTC)

The alt-text also plays with this urban legend. Claiming that sociologists cannot explain why people like to claim that bumblebees can't fly is exactly like claiming that scientists cannot explain bumblebee flight, to the extent that the motivation for people to cite the myth about bumblebees is actually quite easily explained by the desire to discredit science as a way to avoid having to consider the implications of your own beliefs being contradictory to science (e.g. young-earth creationism). 74.77.132.55 03:47, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

Correct, at least in my experience. I was raised as a Baptist, and I vividly remember my Sunday School teachers telling me this "fact" about bees. They were trying to do exactly what you said: discredit science and justify their beliefs. Diszy (talk) 17:46, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

Does the explanation actually say that not all mechanics of bumblebee flight are understood? Because it's actually been completely understood for years. 173.245.63.180 07:34, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

Nah, its just saying that one interpretation is that it is an alternate universe where physicist are just scrambling to try to come up with an answer to the claim that bumblebees can't fly airplanes. --Lackadaisical (talk) 21:21, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

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